


Angel of the night

by HopeSilverheart



Series: Loving Em at 2AM [52]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels, Angel Isabelle, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, First Kiss, First Meet, Fluff, Getting Together, Girls in Love, Good Friend Lydia Branwell, Human Lydia, Hurt Isabelle Lightwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25041298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeSilverheart/pseuds/HopeSilverheart
Summary: Lydia would have been satisfied if that was all they had ever done. She would have been content to stare at her white-clad woman and let her give Lydia whatever happiness she had to spare. She could have lived with that, because it was already a thousand times better than the life Lydia had led before.But then she spoke, and Lydia couldn’t imagine her life without the angel’s voice in it. She couldn’t imagine a life in which they were anything other than two halves of the same soul, longing for each other when they were apart and breathing better when they were together.“I never knew humans could be so beautiful.”Or: Lydia meets her guardian angel and falls in love.
Relationships: Lydia Branwell/Isabelle Lightwood
Series: Loving Em at 2AM [52]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764400
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Angel of the night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatnerdemryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemryn/gifts).



The first time she saw her, Lydia thought she was hallucinating. She was coming home from another unsuccessful date, angry at herself and angry at the universe, when she had seen the woman in the sky.

Inky black hair that faded into the darkness of the night, alabaster skin just a few shades darker than her white top, white pants, white _wings_ ; she was a vision, and Lydia gaped for longer than was probably appropriate, wondering if she had just been blessed with a guardian angel.

Then she blinked, and the woman was gone, leaving only a thing stream of light behind, as well as the feeling that Lydia had just experienced something bigger than herself. A sliver of joy and peace wormed its way into her heart and brought her the comfort she had so desperately needed after the day she’d had, so Lydia took a second to thank the stars and the moon for sending her the winged woman, even if only for an instant.

She thought that would be the end of it, but the angel appeared to her again a week later, just when she got the news that her grandmother didn’t have much time left on earth. She got home that evening and the woman in white was waiting for her, sitting on her rooftop like she was guarding something precious. She didn’t say anything, didn’t even move, but Lydia knew she hadn’t made her up.

She was gone just as fast as the first time, but Lydia felt another morsel of happiness lodge itself into her heart, and she knew the length of the angel’s stays didn’t matter as much as what she left behind. She went to sleep that night and dreamt of her grandmother smiling at her, a winged woman made of the deepest black and the brightest white holding her hand as she led her into the light.

She woke up with tears on her face but the feeling that everything would be alright.

After that, it became a regular occurrence. Whenever Lydia was having a bad day, her evening would end with her dark-haired angel appearing on the way home, or on her roof, or at her window when Lydia made it back to her house before the sun set. She never said anything, and Lydia still wasn’t sure she was real, but it didn’t matter. Every time she left, she gifted what felt like pure positivity to Lydia, and the blonde couldn’t have been more thankful.

The dreams never stopped either. She didn’t know whether those were another effect the angel draped in white had on her, or if she simply slept better when the woman had stopped by, but she had never felt more well-rested in the morning than she did when the angel visited her.

Of course, that also meant Lydia was having less and less bad days, which meant she was seeing less of her angel. Every time she came home and the mysterious woman wasn’t there, her heart clenched painfully and her soul cried out yearningly for the small fragment of pure joy she had been awarded. But still, the angel was there whenever Lydia was feeling particularly lonely or anxious or down.

Lydia would have been satisfied if that was all they had ever done. She would have been content to stare at her white-clad woman and let her give Lydia whatever happiness she had to spare. She could have lived with that, because it was already a thousand times better than the life Lydia had led before.

But then she spoke, and Lydia couldn’t imagine her life without the angel’s voice in it. She couldn’t imagine a life in which they were anything other than two halves of the same soul, longing for each other when they were apart and breathing better when they were together.

“I never knew humans could be so beautiful.”

A single sentence that had completely changed Lydia’s life. Just a few simple words that had made her feel more seen, more wanted, more _worthy_ than she ever had before. The angel spoke melodically, her voice lilting soothingly with every word, and Lydia wondered how she had ever thought her gaze and happiness were enough.

“Well, I never knew there were people out there who weren’t human,” Lydia said softly, her breath hitching when the angel giggled lightly. “I guess that makes us even.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” the dark-haired woman whispered. “I doubt my presence is enough to pay you back for all you have given me, my treasure.”

Lydia didn’t swoon, thank you very much, although butterflies fluttered through her entire body and her heart sped up drastically. Her angel had been coming for months on end, lending some of her joy and energy to Lydia without asking for anything in return, and she felt as though _she_ hadn’t payed Lydia back?

“But I’ve given you nothing, and you’ve given me everything,” Lydia murmured, leaning even further outside, holding onto her windowsill for support. The angel was floating in front of her, her wings outspread and glittering in the moonlight and as magnificent as ever. “You’ve given me hope and warmth and happiness and support and comfort, and how could I- How could a human ever return any of that to an angel such as yourself.”

“Oh, _Tesoro_ , you have no idea what you’ve done for me,” the angel sighed, raising a hand to Lydia’s face and letting it trail down her cheek until her fingers were brushing against Lydia’s lips. “You have no idea how much humanity and pure empathy means to an angel. You have no idea how rare it is to find a human as good and as determined to succeed as you. I searched the entire earth for the human I was supposed to protect, and then my soul led me to you.”

Lydia’s throat dried up as she realised she had been right all along. The woman really _was_ her guardian angel, looking down at her from her place in the sky and providing her with what she needed in exchange for the human emotions the angel couldn’t obtain on her own.

“And should you be talking to me?” She asked quietly, knowing what the angel’s answer would be even before her lips curled into a sad smile. “Should you even have let me see you in the first place?”

“No,” the dark-haired woman answered, cupping Lydia’s cheek again and smiling a little more genuinely when the blonde leaned into her touch. “No, I shouldn’t have, but something was drawing me to you, and I couldn’t bear to ignore it any longer. As for talking to you… There’s something about you, _Tesoro_ , that makes it impossible for me to stay away. It was only a matter of time until I finally caved and approached you.”

“I wish you’d done it sooner.”

“So do I, my treasure.”

“It’s Lydia,” the blonde corrected, blushing when her guardian angel only laughed. Right, she probably knew more about Lydia than Lydia herself did. “Do you have a name, angel?”

“I suppose I do,” the woman chuckled, pulling away from Lydia and looking behind her. The sun was rising, and Lydia knew she wasn’t going to like what the angel had to say next. “You can call me Isabelle, _Tesoro_ , although you’re also free to keep calling me angel if you think it suits me better.”

“You have to leave now, don’t you?” Lydia murmured, pointedly ignoring how painful it was for her to ask that question. She didn’t want to think about the reasons behind her attachment to the angel too much, didn’t want to question her feelings too much, didn’t want to get lost in her own mind again. “You can’t stay when the sun is up.”

“Pretty _and_ clever,” Isabelle huffed, her eyes turning darker and sadder than Lydia had ever seen them. “I’ll come back to you soon, _Tesoro_ , just wait for me. I’ll come back to you as soon as the sun has set and the stars have risen.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

And apparently, Isabelle wasn’t the kind of angel to go back on her promises. That morning, she left Lydia behind feeling lonelier than she had in a long time, but that night, she came back and filled the blonde’s heart with more love than she had ever felt.

They talked about everything and nothing until the sun rose again, and again, and again, on and on for what felt like days but was probably weeks. Lydia barely slept anymore, but it was all worth it to see Isabelle’s beautiful smile, to hear her tinkling laughter, and to feel the angel’s wings curl around her back protectively.

They both know it was wrong, Isabelle even more so than Lydia, but it seemed neither of them could stop. Perhaps their souls truly had intertwined, because Lydia only felt whole when Isabelle was around. Perhaps their hearts truly beat as one, because Lydia always felt off-tempo when her angel was gone and she was left alone with only the daylight to illuminate her life.

The sun was bright and provided her with some relief, but Isabelle was brighter, and Lydia was starting to think that no one and nothing would ever compare to her. Not her friends, no matter how hard they tried to stay in touch with her, not her family, no matter how much they cared about her, and not everything else on this planet of wonders. She searched and searched for something that gave her even a fraction of the happiness Isabelle did, but it was all to no avail.

She spent her days waiting for Isabelle to appear in front of her, and she spent her nights hoping the sun would hold off for just a while longer. She felt the sunlight drain away her joy, and she felt the moon and the stars give her the energy she lacked.

“Are you an angel of the night?” She asked Isabelle one evening as they lay on Lydia’s roof, Isabelle having helped her up. “Or are all angels night beings?”

“A bit of both,” Isabelle answered softly, carding her fingers through Lydia’s hair as though it were the most natural thing to do. “We all thrive at night, but most angels can also stay on earth during the day. I was… cursed, in a way, and can only appear in my physical form when the moon is up and the sun is gone.”

“That sounds like a terrible curse to have on you,” Lydia whispered, thinking about what it must feel like to only be able to live half a life. “Are you the only one?”

“No,” Isabelle murmured, her voice breaking on the single syllable. When Lydia looked back at her, there were tears in the angel’s eyes. “My brother was also affected by the curse, but it affects him the other way around. I’ve been trying to break it ever since then, hoping beyond hope that I’ll someday see my brother again.”

And right there and then, Lydia realised there was nothing she wouldn’t do to grant Isabelle her one wish. So she whispered a quiet promise against the angel’s skin, a promise to help her see her brother again, no matter the cost.

That night, Lydia fell asleep draped across Isabelle’s chest and woke up to the phantom feeling of fingers trailing over her body, worshipping every inch of her like she was a divine offering meant to be cherished. And that day, she dove into the depths of New York City in the hopes that she would find a broken angel who could no longer live at night.

She didn’t find him, but she never stopped looking. Isabelle and her never spoke about it again, but every night, the angel whispered a ‘ _thank you_ ’ to Lydia’s sleeping form before flying away, and Lydia knew exactly what her angel was so thankful for.

When one night, her angel showed up with tears in her eyes and told her that she wasn’t sure she could take it for much longer, Lydia folded her into a warm embrace and promised her that she would be there for her, no matter what, and that she would help her get through anything if Isabelle let her.

When Lydia finally admitted that she had scoured through the entire city without finding anything, Isabelle squeezed her hand tighter than she ever had before and promised her it was enough that Lydia had tried.

And when Isabelle finally admitted that the consequences to their actions were starting to catch up to them, Lydia begged her to stay or to take her with the angel, because there was nothing she wanted more than a lifetime spent in Isabelle’s arms, tucked into the safety of her wings.

“You have a life here, Lydia,” the angel whispered against her lips, their breaths mingling and Lydia’s skin burning up every time Isabelle spoke. “You can’t leave it all behind just because of a single woman.”

“But I can,” Lydia laughed right back, the sound delighted and broken and a perfect reflection of the blonde’s heart. “I can because, just like you, I’ve started living half a life. I may not be cursed by magic, but it seems my own heart decided to turn against me. The daylight has never felt so wrong against my skin, and the moon has never felt so welcoming. Take me with you anywhere you want, Isabelle, because I could never regret finally living a full life with the woman I- With the angel I love.”

“ _Lydia_.”

Isabelle’s lips crashed against hers for the first time that night, bringing with them a flood of passion and joy and hope that Lydia welcomed with open arms. They kissed underneath a thousand stars, and Lydia tried to show Isabelle how much she mattered to her with a simple gesture, a single touch, just one brush of her lips. She kissed Isabelle like they were the only people in the world and, when they broke apart, she asked her again.

“Take me with you, please.”

Isabelle’s eyes were gentle and sad and warm, and Lydia knew the angel wanted the same thing she did, but she had a feeling things wouldn’t be quite so easy.

“I will,” the angel murmured, looking up at the sky and towards the sun rising in the distance. “I promise I will, but you need to wait for me, _Tesoro_. I don’t know when I’ll be back but, if you still want me then, I will take you with me anywhere. I will take you to the sky and make you an angel if that’s what it takes, but I promise I’ll be back. Just wait for me.”

And so she did.

She lived the half of her life she had grown to despise, falling asleep with tears in her eyes as she dreamed about her angel and the kiss they had shared that night. She continued walking through New York City in search of Isabelle’s brother, and she prayed to a deity she didn’t believe in every evening before she went to bed. She prayed for Isabelle’s brother to find his sister, and she prayed for Isabelle to come back to her.

She waited for what felt like years but was only slightly more than a month, and then Isabelle kept her end of the promise.

She came back, draped in the same white as she always had, appearing to Lydia like a vision in the darkness, an angel standing in front of an eclipse with a bright smile on her face, her wings extended behind her even as she reached out to touch Lydia’s hand.

“Still want me to take you with me?”

Lydia nodded, because there was nothing she wanted more. She tightened her jacket around her and took a leap of faith, lacing her fingers with Isabelle’s and letting the angel lift her into her arms.

The sky was a sea of colours, reds and pinks and oranges that made Isabelle appear even more heavenly and, as they rose higher and higher, Lydia wondered if she would be able to touch them once they reached their destination. She wondered what was waiting for her at the top of the world. She wondered if in the midst of the eclipse, Alec had taken his chance and flown up to his home to find his sister.

She wondered and wondered some more, but most of all, she tightened her hold on Isabelle and thanked whoever was responsible for giving her this beautiful guardian angel.

And when they reached the clouds and stepped into a world Lydia could have never imagined, she kissed Isabelle again and again and again, tasting her lips and her tears and everything that made her angel who she was.

She looked down at the earth and thought she would feel something, _anything_ , maybe even regret, but all she felt was contentment and satisfaction. All the earth had offered her was half a life.

Isabelle had already given her so much more.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya guys! Thank you so much for reading! I've missed writing these two together, so here they are! This fic really encompasses what I love about this series, and I hope Em likes it even a fraction as much as I do <3 I used a [beautiful drawing](https://www.instagram.com/p/B4BpfAVKEjx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) by @chalseu_d (a wonderful artist on instagram) as inspiration for that last scene, so feel free to go check out his work! I hope you all enjoyed it!
> 
> Love, Junie. 
> 
> (find me on tumblr @hopesilverheart)


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